Xerox (or more precisely, the part of Xerox that used to be Tektronix) has consistently gotten things right when it comes to solid-ink printers, and the new Xerox Phaser 860DX (tested configuration, $4,400 street) fits in this tradition. The Phaser 850s that this new series replaces was an attractive alternative to color laser printers, but the Phaser 860DX is better. And as with its older siblings, you get free black ink for the life of the printer, which keeps TCO down.

Setup is easy: Remove the packing materials, load the paper, pop open the top to drop the ink blocks into their keyed slots, plug in the power cord and network cable, and you're done. Network setup is almost as easy. We simply started the setup process, let the unit find the printer on the network, and then gave it permission to install the driver. The only thing missing from setup was an option to install drivers for other OSs to take advantage of the Microsoft Windows NT or 2000 Point and Print feature. Xerox says it has now added this feature, however.

The default standard mode (355 by 464 dpi) offers text with well-formed, dark characters and graphics with brilliant colors, but we saw dithering, in the form of graininess, in both graphics and photos. In enhanced resolution (464 by 928 dpi) the graininess is less obvious, and in photo resolution (600-by-1,200) graininess is less obvious still, so you get true photo quality, or close to it.

Performance varies relatively little for photos at different resolutions. We timed a full-page photo at about 6 minutes 22 seconds in photo mode, compared with 6 minutes 1 second in standard mode. For text, the variation is more significant. We timed a ten-page file at 1 minute 18 seconds in standard mode, compared with 1 minute 52 seconds in enhanced mode, with little gain in quality.

Xerox has reformulated the ink for this series, making the ink stick smaller and the dye more concentrated. This change minimizes jams when the pages are run through a copier. On our tests we still experienced copier jams, but they occurred only with full-page photos and graphics. This alone makes the 860 series a significant improvement over the 850s.

About the Author

M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David is also an expert in imaging technologies (including printers, moni... See Full Bio

A More Solid Printer

A More Solid Printer

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